Case Study: The Polar Mine: Victim Of Poorly Planned Organizational Change

The case presents the situation of a mining company in the northern part of the province of Quebec, Canada, which, like most companies operating in this sector, should at some point in their operation seek funding to continue their activities. The Polaire mine has some seniority in nickel mining, but these activities can not be developed without the initiation of partnerships with other mines acting as investors. Thus, an interesting offer of purchase was made at the Polar mine by the Arctic mine. The latter comes with money, but with a lot of questions from employees. They are going through a period of transition after the merger, which does not seem very well managed by the company: the leaders are not informed about the evolution of the partnership, and do not inform their subordinates in turn. They have concerns for which they do not find answers, which makes them unmotivated and even likely to change jobs. The case address to the management students, who are asked to describe the experiences of participants and to propose solutions to the company in order to facilitate the process of change and increase employee motivation.